New paint on NCO tsuka

[Denis V]

Sky blue? My god.

I agree that changes made by the soldier who took it home are worth preserving and part of the history of the sword.

Not easy to prove though, unless you have concrete pictures. Mine came with a ‘souvenir certificate’ and a picture of the officer. But to be honest, i’m not even sure that the name on the certificate and the officer on the picture are the same person. Is there a way to check?

Both documents look rather original even if i’ve never actually seen a real one. Are such documents being faked as well?

[Shamsy]

I've not seen a fake one... But they're pretty uncommon really. They usually just say 'Japanese sword' too, so very hard to attribute accurately. As usual, in both instances, it is best 'from the veteran' or their family.

[PNSSHOGUN]

Unless the seller added a premium based on it they are probably original.

[tbonesullivan]

That looks 100% better!  I don't understand people who think that painting over a well worn piece of military history is a good idea.  See it all the time in the Antique Firearms world. At least in that case we don't have to worry about leaving the original paint intact, and can just use citristrip on it, or throw it in an ultrasonic cleaner.

[Denis V]

You’re right Steve. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of Belgian veterans who fought in the Pacific :-)

In the US, UK and Australia, you’re rather lucky in the sense that military swords are a more common and you still have the stories directly from the right people. In Belgium it’s really hard to find good and interesting material. And the prices are rather expensive...

 

I took a picture of the documents.

From the examples i’ve seen so far, the certificates were not really standard forms, but more like an improvised type of document?

I also read that they were not always accepted by British customs when the soldiers returned?

[tbonesullivan]

Each country had its own process for "war trophies" or bring backs. I've handled a few Japanese Military swords with "surrender tags", but I don't know if that's actually what they are. There then could be, at least in the U.S. some type of certificate for bringing items back. There were a few different ways they seem to have come back, and there were not always papers. Those were always required when it was something too big to fit in their bag. Swords were borderline, but I've handled two that had bring back papers.  I have attached pictures of the papers.

[Shamsy]

You’re right Steve. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of Belgian veterans who fought in the Pacific :-)

In the US, UK and Australia, you’re rather lucky in the sense that military swords are a more common and you still have the stories directly from the right people. In Belgium it’s really hard to find good and interesting material. And the prices are rather expensive...

I took a picture of the documents.

From the examples i’ve seen so far, the certificates were not really standard forms, but more like an improvised type of document?

I also read that they were not always accepted by British customs when the soldiers returned?

It does seem to vary vastly, but they're all reasonably similar from what I've seen. Usually a typed slip with a couple of fields to fill in. Yours has all the signs of age, so you can be pretty confident. As I mentioned, the sword descriptions are about as vague as you can get, so it's not really a given that any certification is actually attributed to a given sword.

 

I'm not saying it isn't the case, but like a 'story', better to pay for the items rather than what cannot be documented.

[Denis V]

Indeed Steve. You’re wright. Never the less, a good story always speaks to the imagination and history fanatics (like us) can get really excited by a good story. Well, at least I can. Gets my juices flowing ( or how do you say this in English?)

Concerning the documents, They aren’t really specific concerning the sword. But in the case the document and sword really belong together; at least you kind of have an indication where it has served.

 

@ David. Thanks for the examples. Nice documents. They all are kind of the same, but not totally.

The first guy seems to have been lucky. He got to take 2 swords back :-)

[tbonesullivan]

@ David. Thanks for the examples. Nice documents. They all are kind of the same, but not totally.

The first guy seems to have been lucky. He got to take 2 swords back :-)

 

Yep! He was stationed over there until 1946, so he had plenty of time to pick them up. Both were Shin-Gunto, but they were definitely in nice shape.

 

I have seen other more formal bring back papers for other items, mainly for ones that they brought back through the military transport service. They would then pick them up at a state-side depot.

 

Of course, some people also brought back things like live machine guns, and back then they didn't really require a full deactivation...

[PNSSHOGUN]

Alot of soldiers simply sent back stuff in the mail, can't remember the book but a US soldier in europe had a steady stream of lugers, daggers, officer hats etc etc being sent home at every chance he could get.

[Bruce Pennington]

Denis,

Nice job on the Bubba-paint removal. I have a 95 that was painted gold - even the blade!!! Acetone (which is what is in nail polish remover) does the trick without removing the original paint. It is slow and laborious work though, but worth it.

 

The "while" handled gunto in pictures were actually wrapped in cloth to protect the handles. Many pictures of the practice out there.